When talking about vacations, the phrase “safety first” may not immediately come to mind.
But why not ? Before being able to fully enjoy a trip, a sense of security must first be felt by the traveler.
A student from Singapore, known as Chri5tie on TikTok, was traveling in Europe and had various experiences regarding her sense of safety in different countries.
Last December, she rated these countries based on her experiences and shared them on TikTok.
The post has garnered over 215,000 views at the time of writing.
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS8AK8kyr/
Chri5tie was in Europe for an extended period as she was on an exchange abroad program in Poland.
Based on her 10/10 rating on her capital, Warsaw, she seems to have enjoyed her time there.
“A special place in my heart,” she said when describing the city.
In her five months there, there were no racist encounters and she “felt quite safe” walking home alone at night.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the other cities she visited.
Paris was a real downside for her, to the point of scoring 0/10 in terms of safety.
It appeared she was on hyper-alert mode, with her hands completely inside her coat pockets “at all times” and being “24/7 on guard for pickpockets”.
Unsurprisingly, his trip to Paris was mentally exhausting.
Another city that received a boost from the young Singaporean was Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
She had her first and only racist encounter here.
Chri5tie was with her Asian friends when a group of teenagers walked past them.
“You guys need to wake up,” they shouted.
This is probably in reference to the stereotype of Asians having slanted eyes.
Fortunately, the other locals were “pretty friendly” and Chri5tie shared a few other towns where she had overwhelmingly positive experiences.
The list included Berlin, Bratislava, Interlaken and Seville.
AsiaOne contacted Chris5tie for more information.
In the comments section, a few netizens also talked about their negative experiences in the Netherlands.
“Oh my god, I didn’t like the Netherlands at all either,” said one TikTok user.
A netizen was surprised at her high rating for Warsaw and cheekily asked her if she had a Polish boyfriend.
In her response, Christie didn’t mention anything about having a Polish boyfriend. Instead, she was with a friend for three months there. She was also left alone for six weeks.
The City of Love has not received much love from some netizens. Many agreed with Chri5tie that the town is unsafe and would not recommend it to others.
However, a few TikTok users had a very different experience when they were in Paris.
One mentioned that they “had a great time in Paris” while another gave it a 10/10.
From the video, it looks like Chri5tie managed to avoid any incidents of pickpocketing during her time in Europe.
These can be quite common among travelers. Last month, a Singaporean family was targeted by pickpockets twice in 24 hours during their stay in Athens.
The incident started just after they landed as they were being followed on public transport.
It reached a point where it was too dangerous for them to check their Airbnb.
READ ALSO : I survived a pickpocketing attempt on my first day in Europe – here’s how
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